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Araknid
The Araknids are a spider-like species from Unreal II: The Awakening. __TOC__ Overview Araknids are alien animals that somewhat resemble Earth spiders, transplanted to the planet Eizo VI C: Hell for research purposes at the Elysium Weapons Research Facility. They're not known as an aggressive species, and their home planet is unknown. Like most creatures in Unreal II: The Awakening, araknids appear as three variants variants, light, medium, and heavy. The Light Araknid is the regular version of the species, a smaller, yellow spider that runs after its prey trying to bite it. Once they go through an energy beam powered by an artifact, they turn into Medium Araknids, a larger, red version that jumps at its prey, trying to crush it. At the very core of the facility there's the Heavy Araknid, also called "Araknid Queen", a sturdier, big yellow spider who uses concussion waves and is capable of spawning light araknids who run to the laser in order to turn into the annoying Medium spiders. Involvement in the games The game's fourth mission has John Dalton travel to Hell. The Axon Research Corporation has set up a weapons research facility called Elysium on the icy surface. According to Sector Commander Hawkins, the researchers have been working on an alien artifact, and it has been 18 hours since their last transmission. Once inside the facility Dalton encounters the Araknids who have killed most of the staff. After searching the facility Dalton discovers the researchers tried to harness the power of one of the Artifacts, creating a beam that changes animals' genetic structure, both enlarging and enraging them. Creatures, some native, but most imported from other planets (including the Araknids) are in cages and are waiting to be experimented on. The Araknids escaped and were transformed by the beam. A constant stream of new Araknids walks uses the beam to create a growing army. After killing many Araknids, Dalton looks for the beam's source and meets a huge Araknid that functions as the mission's boss. Although they have only been sighted on Hell, Isaak was able to use the creature's biomass with a unique gun which spawns them for use against any enemies. The weapon consists of an ejaculator tube filled with the biomass. The weapon's primary fire shoots an egg sac filled with many tiny Araknids that immediately cover the targetted enemy. The weapon doesn't do much damage, but is good at distracting the enemy. Its alternate fire also launches an egg sace, but leaves it closed. Once approached, Araknids will emerge from the spore and fight the enemy. A third fire mode, used by holding down the alternate fire for a while, will clone and release a sac, emerging a single, larger Araknid that will also attack nearby enemies. Tips and tricks * Araknids are relatively vulnerable to fire, making the Vulcan Flamethrower and Shotgun's incendiary slugs effective against the creatures. Trivia * Before being cut, Unreal II featured a mission on a desert planet riddled with canyons and crawling with Araknids, reminiscent of the film Starship Troopers. Artwork from this mission later found a use in XMP's map XMP-Sirocco. Gallery (6) Hell - Unreal II (8) Elysium Disclosure - Unreal II (9) Elysium end & Atlantis - Unreal II !U2-Hell-1.jpg !U2-Hell-2.jpg External links and references See also * Spider Gun